Third Greek rescue deal met with widespread scepticism

The effect of these contractionary measures on growth is disputed. Christian Odendahl, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform think-tank, believes the economy will be 4.2 per cent smaller by 2018 as a result of further austerity.

"Greece's third bailout is bound to fail for the same reasons that the last two programmes did," Mr Odendahl said. "A government who . . . claimed to be ending austerity will now be forced to do the opposite."

..."This is hopelessly optimistic," Mr Odendahl said. "Even the [creditors'] more optimistic forecasts from April 2014 only predicted revenues [from privatisations] of €22.3bn until 2020."